A Year Underfoot by Paul Nevins

Author:Paul Nevins
Language: eng
Format: azw3, mobi
Published: 2012-01-01T07:00:00+00:00

I had to stop and shake my head to keep from laughing. Talk about putting the cart before the horse. I still had to crawl more than half the length of the ship, sneak onto the bridge and then breach the power core without getting killed along the way.

Thoughts of escape would have to wait. I still had a job to do.

I looked up and my heart sank, up ahead, the ventilation shaft split off in two directions.

It wasn’t a straight shot to the bow, after all.

I choose the shaft leading off to the left and said a prayer. If the shaft presented another series of options up ahead, I’d have to fall back and take stock. As it stood, I had a fairly good idea of where I was on the ship, but a five minute crawl in either direction, with a twist or two thrown in for good measure and I’d have been hopelessly lost, no doubt about it.

I kept moving, and as I pressed on I realized the shaft was slowly wrapping itself around the ship’s main power core.

I was on the right track.

This would put me mid–ship.

Right here, right about the time I was feeling a bit smug, I was overcome by a foul, putrid stench. I nearly vomited on the spot. The smell of rotted and decaying meat permeated the air, and as it wafted past me, my eyes began to water and sting. I sat back on my heels and covered my mouth hoping it would pass.

Then I heard footsteps.

A brief pitter–patter, like that a small dog scampering across a ceramic tile floor, filled the shaft. I was no longer alone. There was something else in the narrow shaft with me, some sort of alien creature I hadn’t met before, but would now, because a confrontation was all but inevitable. There wasn’t anywhere else either one of us could go.

I’d been inching forward with my .357 in my right hand all along, so I was good to go at a moment’s notice, but, rather than plunge blindly into the unknown I sat back and listened.

The scampering continued.

The creature was close, very close.

The air became very still. In fact, the gentle flow of air through the duct had stopped all together. My worst fear was coming to fruition. The airflow was reversing. Now I was upwind of the creature.

I held the gun out in front, waiting for the charge I knew was surely coming. And, seconds later my worst fears were confirmed when I saw a trio of menacing red eyes rushing toward me out of the darkness. I hadn’t a split second to waste and pulled the trigger repeatedly.

A shrill scream filled the airshaft. My bullets had found the alien creature’s soft skull, making mince meat of its brain and shredding its nervous system as well. The creature was dead before it even fell upon me.

I pushed the fifty–pound possum–like creature off me and rolled the other away. I reloaded my gun and poked at the strange animal.

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